What is Berkeley DB ?

The Berkeley DB has few different operation modes. The Oracle Berkeley DB v 5 got new SQL mode. The Berkeley DB SQL engine is actually the SQLite engine with SQLite BTree pager replaced with Berkeley DB data storage. As result, the Berkeley DB has the same SQL and the same API as SQLite. But different DB space management, locking and concurency control. Both are very compatible, although the DB files are not. More about Berkeley DB you can read there:

• BDB vs SQLite - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/bdb-sqlite-comparison-wp-176431.pdf
• Overview - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/overview/index.html;
• Licensing - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/downloads/licensing-098979.html
• Download - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/berkeleydb/downloads/index.html

I will not stop here on the Berkeley DB features, but lets compare Berkeley DB and SQLite:

• Berkeley DB implements MVCC. SQLite does not. 
• Berkeley DB has page level locking. SQLite has database level locking. Due to that Berkeley DB offers much better performance in multi-user environment. See the "BDB vs SQLite" link above for more details.
• Berkeley DB has build-in replication. For SQLite you can use 3d party products.
• Berkeley DB has dual license - open-source license for open-source applications and commercial license for commercial close-source applications. Worth to note, the commercial BDB license is not cheap, as all other Oracle software - search for Berkeley DB at Oracle Price List. And SQLite is free.

AnyDAC and Berkeley DB

AnyDAC offers support only for SQL mode. After some changes the AnyDAC SQLite driver started to work with Berkeley DB and passed full QA suite. Few aspects:

• By default AnyDAC SQLite driver uses static linking. But for Berkeley DB you have to use dynamic linking. To enable dynamic linking, undefine AnyDAC_SQLITE_STATIC in AnyDAC\Source\uAD.inc.
• Berkeley DB does not support BusyTimeout, allowing to wait for a lock to be released. Instead Berkeley DB reports a deadlock error.
• AnyDAC sets LockingMode=Exclusive by default. Set it to Normal for Berkeley DB.
• Berkeley DB does not have encryption mode specified as password prefix.

In other both DBMS's are very close by behaviour, configuration and usage.